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Surgical Technologists vs Radiation Therapists

Side-by-side · O*NET · BLS · AI-exposure research · Anthropic Economic Index

A factual, source-backed comparison of Surgical Technologists and Radiation Therapists on the dimensions both occupations carry. Every figure is a position within an independent published dataset — not a verdict on which job is better, safer, or more “future-proof.”

Surgical Technologists Radiation Therapists
Median pay · BLS OEWS
$62,830
$101,990
Employment · BLS OEWS
113,890
18,700
AI exposure (percentile) · task overlap, not automation
5th pct
26th pct

At a glance

Dimension Surgical Technologists Radiation Therapists
Median pay $62,830 $101,990
Employment 113,890 18,700
Employment outlook (2024–34) · BLS projection About average (+4.5%) About average (+1.9%)
Annual openings · BLS projection 7,000 900
Typical education · O*NET Most occupations in this zone require training in vocational schools, related on-the-job experience, or an associate's degree. Most occupations in this zone require training in vocational schools, related on-the-job experience, or an associate's degree.
AI exposure · published exposure studies Low · 5th pct Low · 26th pct
Global GenAI gradient · ILO ISCO-08 · via crosswalk — 40th pct · 22% of tasks
Observed AI use · Anthropic Economic Index — —
Mostly remote-capable · Dingel–Neiman No No

Pay and employment are BLS OEWS estimates; outlook and openings are BLS 2024–2034 projections; AI exposure and observed-use figures come from separate research and reflect exposure and usage, not predictions that either job will disappear. Compare like with like.

Skills

Shared: Oral Comprehension, Monitoring, Problem Sensitivity, Near Vision, Customer and Personal Service, Medicine and Dentistry, Speech Recognition, Arm-Hand Steadiness, English Language, Active Listening, Selective Attention, Operations Monitoring, Oral Expression, Information Ordering, Speaking, Critical Thinking, Coordination, Time Management, Speech Clarity, Education and Training, Reading Comprehension, Social Perceptiveness, Service Orientation, Complex Problem Solving, Operation and Control, Written Comprehension, Written Expression, Deductive Reasoning, Inductive Reasoning.

Specific to Surgical Technologists

  • Manual Dexterity
  • Perceptual Speed
  • Number Facility
  • Flexibility of Closure
  • Visual Color Discrimination
  • Active Learning
  • Learning Strategies
  • Instructing

Specific to Radiation Therapists

  • Physics
  • Mathematics
  • Computers and Electronics
  • Therapy and Counseling
  • Psychology
  • Biology
  • Writing
  • Category Flexibility

Knowledge, skills & abilities O*NET rates as important for each occupation. “Shared” are common to both; the columns list what is distinctive to each (top by the order O*NET surfaces).

Tools & technology

Shared: Medical software , Spreadsheet software , Office suite software , Word processing software , Graphics or photo imaging software .

Specific to Surgical Technologists

Specific to Radiation Therapists

Full profiles

This page is a summary. See the complete source-backed profile for Surgical Technologists or Radiation Therapists — tasks, the full skill graph, tools, work context, preparation, wages by percentile, industries, AI exposure and the AI work map.

More comparisons

Related occupations you can place side by side on the same sourced scale.

Sources for this page

Every figure above traces to a named public dataset and the exact release below — not hand-written opinion. See the full methodology for what each measure does and does not mean.

Data compiled June 2, 2026. Figures are estimates, not advice.

Cite this page
Plain

Singulariki. "Surgical Technologists vs Radiation Therapists." Singulariki: a source-backed encyclopedia of work. Built from O*NET 30.3; BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS) May 2024; BLS Employment Projections 2024–2034; Anthropic Economic Index v4 (2026-01-15) + v2 (2025-03-27); Microsoft “Working with AI” working-with-ai; “GPTs are GPTs” (Eloundou et al.) arXiv 2303.10130; AI Occupational Exposure (AIOE) Felten, Raj & Seamans; ILO / Gmyrek et al. GenAI exposure gradient 2025; IBS O*NET-SOC ↔ ISCO-08 occupation crosswalk 2022; Frey & Osborne (2013) frey-osborne-automation; Dingel & Neiman (2020) dingel-neiman-workathome. Accessed June 7, 2026. https://singulariki.com/compare/surgical-technologists-vs-radiation-therapists

APA

Singulariki. (2026). Surgical Technologists vs Radiation Therapists. Singulariki: a source-backed encyclopedia of work. Retrieved June 7, 2026, from https://singulariki.com/compare/surgical-technologists-vs-radiation-therapists

BibTeX 
@misc{singulariki-surgical-technologists-vs-radiation-therapists,
  title  = {Surgical Technologists vs Radiation Therapists},
  author = {{Singulariki}},
  year   = {2026},
  note   = {O*NET 30.3; BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS) May 2024; BLS Employment Projections 2024–2034; Anthropic Economic Index v4 (2026-01-15) + v2 (2025-03-27); Microsoft “Working with AI” working-with-ai; “GPTs are GPTs” (Eloundou et al.) arXiv 2303.10130; AI Occupational Exposure (AIOE) Felten, Raj & Seamans; ILO / Gmyrek et al. GenAI exposure gradient 2025; IBS O*NET-SOC ↔ ISCO-08 occupation crosswalk 2022; Frey & Osborne (2013) frey-osborne-automation; Dingel & Neiman (2020) dingel-neiman-workathome. Accessed June 7, 2026},
  url    = {https://singulariki.com/compare/surgical-technologists-vs-radiation-therapists}
}

Citations name the underlying public dataset releases — they reflect what this page is built from, not just the URL.